Philip Newborough has announced the development release (Alpha 1) version of CrunchBang Linux 10 code-named "Statler" just moments after the release of Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" Beta 1. For the first time ever, the distro is being built using Debian sources, instead of Ubuntu.

As some of you may know, CrunchBang Linux has become one of the most popular flavors of Ubuntu by featuring out of the box light-weight Openbox window manager and GTK+ applications on top of a minimal Ubuntu system. It is also considered as one of the simplest and refined Ubuntu-based distributions out there.

CrunchBang Linux 10 "Alpha 1" is now available in two main versions: Openbox and Xfce. Both editions have the same line-up of applications, and the recently added Xfce edition has had its session set-up similar to that of previous CrunchBang Openbox sessions. From the release notes, here are some of the other changes:

* Now uses a customised Debian text installer, available from the LiveCD boot menu.* Now available with either a default Openbox or Xfce4 session. The new Xfce offering has been designed to mimic the original CrunchBang Openbox experience, i.e. a minimal desktop with right-click system menu and predefined shortcut keys for popular applications and commands.* Available for 32 bit and 64 bit architectures, with the 32 bit offering available in i486 and i686 optimised kernel flavours.* Now includes a minimal set of pre-installed applications. The application line-up will be revised over future releases.

If you want to test drive CrunchBang Linux 10 "Alpha 1", you can download it from HERE.

So how did the fans and users of CrunchBang react to this Ubuntu-to-Debian switch? Did it make them feel grouchy like Statler perhaps? I visited the #! Forum and noticed that most community members didn’t seem to mind the change. After all, Ubuntu is based on Debian GNU/Linux hence no big deal I guess.